This is the place I post thoughts about all manner of things... artful monologues, disjointed ramblings, personal issues, overly analytical diatribes, highly organized ruminations, stream of consciousness free association and an occasional poem…

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

I found this fellow sleeping in the mulch pile: He's a Marbled Salamander and apparently an Eastern U.S. resident - I'd never seen one before, as the much more plentiful Chameleons and Five-lined Skinks are less shy.

Marbled Salamander 3 1/2 - 5"

And very recently, on an extremely warm evening, this little guy was clinging to the glass on my storm door. It's a Tree Frog - A "Barking" Tree Frog, I think. These are the guys we refer to as Spring Peepers. Just a bit early, that's all. Sorry for the blur. He was so tiny and it was dark, thus my camera wouldn't focus properly.

Love his little sucker toes.... 2 - 2 1/4" actual size

If I hadn't become an artist, I might have been an entomologist or a naturalist by profession. If you've never read Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, find a copy. That book made me feel "normal" in my fascination with the small, strange (to human perception) and mysterious creatures who are all around us - and yet often unseen.

My critter household has been both diminished and expanded. I lost both of my old horses Lilly and Bogo, and adopted a rescue gelding whom I call Chester, for obvious reasons if you are of a certain age, and remember Gunsmoke with Marshall Dillon and Chester. Apparently he suffered an untreated broken shoulder - a devastating injury - and I'm surprised he survived. He walks by criss-crossing his front legs, but he is able to trot, canter, and to lie down and get up!

I also lost both of my Pyrenees within a few months of one another - one to gone cancer, and the other to old age. When Colbert Veterinary Rescue had an adult female Great Dane for adoption, I couldn't resist. Now Stella at just over 100 #s is adjusting to life on the farm.

Stella - don't you just love her ears!!

Chester - doing his favorite thing: EATING!!! He's a big boy - but not only had his shoulder gone untreated, he had also been starved. He'll be allowed to put on some weight, but due to his injury I'll need to keep him from gaining too much.

Nest time: Emily the beach kitten...

Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday and/or Christmas. I'm heading home to Southern Illinois for a week.

kitty paws series #11

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Artist: I'm mostly a painter of colorful and expressive pieces, but I don't hold myself to any one medium. I love collage and mixed media and find joy in every genre of art from realism to conceptualism. Though my means are modest, I am enriched by all that is around me.

kitty paws series #10

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kinda looks like a kitty paw...

I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. ~Abraham Lincoln

We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form. ~William Ralph Inge, Outspoken Essays, 1922

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kittyus catsus domesticus...

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As you work, the mood grows on you. There are certain images which suddenly get hold of me and I really want to do them. But it's true to say that the excitement and possibilities are in the working and obviously can only come in the working. - Francis Bacon